Leetro MPC6515 support (various China Laser)

[MatthiasWM]

Two things:

1: I am stuck with the Leetro support. No no, I know what I am doing, but I simply do not have the time. I found out a lot more about the format, and I think I could reliably generate working files, but when? Any suggestions welcome!

2: I am a visual person. Outputting Leetro MOL files is nice, but seeing is believing, so I wrote a script plugin that imports MOL files into QCAD. In case there is any Leetro user/dev here, this is where you can download that:

https://www.ribbonsoft.com/rsforum/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=2436&p=7965#p7965

[t-oster]

Well... i know time is somewhat difficult.... any chance we get some basic functionality working to encourage other developers to help with their time?

[MatthiasWM]

I am planning on getting some more work done in two, three weeks. That should become a sufficient base for testing the plugin on other laser cutters. I will try to document it perfectly, so that someone else can jump in or at least add functionality.

[peteruithoven]

I'm sorry, what is the question?

On Mon, Jun 3, 2013 at 11:32 PM, MatthiasWM notifications@git.luolix.topwrote:

I am planning on getting some more work done in two, three weeks. That
should become a sufficient base for testing the plugin on other laser
cutters. I will try to document it perfectly, so that someone else can jump
in or at least add functionality.

—
Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/204
.

[t-oster]

Hi, how is the status on that issue? I am getting more and more requests like "does VisiCut support china lasercutters". As I understand, you can generate basic MOL files and send them? I am not sure about accelleration, which seems to be the most complex part. Epilog's laserprotocol does not include any information on acceleration, they just set the speed and the give the vectors. How does the leetro react if you just omit the accelerations?

[MatthiasWM]

On Feb 27, 2014, at 11:23 PM, Thomas Oster notifications@github.com wrote:

Hi, how is the status on that issue? I am getting more and more requests like "does VisiCut support china lasercutters". As I understand, you can generate basic MOL files and send them? I am not sure about accelleration, which seems to be the most complex part. Epilog's laserprotocol does not include any information on acceleration, they just set the speed and the give the vectors. How does the leetro react if you just omit the accelerations?

Hi Thomas,

the MPC support basically works, but...

• I have absolutely no time right now to write code due to my regular job and family
• the code is not cleaned up (as I said in the beginning, I have never written anything in Java)
• the code is untested because despite a great effort, I could not get a USB connection going (again, Java vs. C++, drivers, etc.). The MPC does accept the MOL files via a memory stick in FAT16(!) format, but that makes testing painfully time consuming

So, what we would need is someone who has a compatible laser cutter, is proficient in Java, and takes over the code at this point and finishes integration and testing. I am happy to help out via EMail when questions arise, but currently (and for about a half year ahead) that's all I can offer.

I would love to see this work...

Matthias

[t-oster]

Hi,

I just wanted to check, if there are any news on the project. Maybe you can upload your (dirty) code to Github, so the community can find a starting-point?

[t-oster]

sorry.... I was faster with writing than with looking. The code can be found of cause here: https://github.com/MatthiasWM/LibLaserCut/blob/feature-mpc6515/src/com/t_oster/liblasercut/drivers/MPC6515Cutter.java Are there any leethro users, who can try it?

[parthlab]

hi i'm a fablab and we have a laser cutter from mllaser-co2 the motion card is a mpc6525 and we would try to use another sofware like visicut; but we don't know how to manage having new laser profile or using this https://github.com/MatthiasWM/LibLaserCut/blob/feature-mpc6515/src/com/t_oster/liblasercut/drivers/MPC6515Cutter.java with visicut. i hope we could try visicut in our fablab

[peteruithoven]

Hi Parthlab,
Great that you are willing to experiment with this!
You would need to build VisiCut yourself. A VisiCut version that uses MatthiasWM's LibLasercut (which includes this MPC6515Cutter driver).
This would be slightly easier if MatthiasWM could fork VisiCut and have that fork use his LibLasercut version.
Information on how to build VisiCut:
https://github.com/t-oster/VisiCut/wiki/Development:-Getting-started

[markmelvin]

Has anyone tried Visicut with an MPC6515? I'd be willing to give it a go, but it looks like the driver file linked in this issue is no longer around. Does anyone have a copy of it?

[t-oster]

Seems like @MatthiasWM removed his repository? @MatthiasWM could you please upload your code somewhere so people can continue to work on that?

[cbrunschen]

In the absence of @MatthiasWM 's code, perhaps the information and code collected at https://wiki.london.hackspace.org.uk/view/Project:RELaserSoftware might be useful?

[markmelvin]

Thanks. I spent quite a bit of time digging through that stuff and it seems it is not enough. It looks like no one has got a full implementation with raster engraving properly working. I'll keep digging as time permits. For now I'll just use my existing software and probably look at replacing the controllers with something more useful.

[MatthiasWM]

I was just contacted via EMail that my repo is missing. I am not sure what's going on, but is indeed possible that I may have deleted it (but I wouldn't know why). Is this the file that you guys are looking for?

MPC6515Cutter.java.zip

[mgmax]

The files are online in the "feature-mpc6515" branch of LibLaserCut. To make life easier for new developers, I rebased the branch to the latest master and made some changes so that it compiles correctly.

However, some development will be required, especially for the USB connection. Also, engraving is not supported at all. If anyone is interested, I'm happy to help, but I don't have that lasercutter.

Depending on the kind of USB interface, some code could be recycled from the K40 driver which also uses USB. Or we can try to avoid the USB part for now and use some existing upload tool.

[tatarize]

USB added for the K40 is pretty standard issue, I'd be kinda surprised it didn't dovetail into helping other usb things along. Assuming that protocol is known somewhere. I've seen some Ruida stuff that basically uses the same methodology.

Also, I added RasterBuilder to LibLaserCut which should actually just allow you to add in rastering in a small little code block. That you could basically cut and paste from the K40NanoDriver file since it'll let it setup the raster and convert it to the vector commands it builds on the fly. I built it in hopes that nobody would have to rebuild that code again.

Though I also, don't have such a machine and really couldn't test any code even if I could guess the right commands for the rastering by cribbing from the vector code and implementing RasterBuilder to convert it.